Automatic recognition of handwritten text is important in providing a natural and convenient way of two-way communications between users and computers. Offline handwritten recognition deals with handwriting in the form of images normally obtained by scanners. Online text recognition deals with handwriting captured by a tablet or similar touch screen device. In the online recognition, the two-dimensional coordinates (x,y) of successive points of writing are stored based on their order whereas the complete writing is available as an image in the offline handwriting.
Most of the existing systems for automatic recognition of handwritten text deal with offline handwritten recognition. The reason for this may be attributed to the challenges related to online Arabic handwriting recognition systems. Some of these challenges include the need for special hardware; the lack of comprehensive benchmark database for Arabic online text; and techniques employed for other languages may not work for online Arabic text recognition. In addition, the writing using online devices is less controlled than writing using a pen on paper. As a result, the variability in writing is more, which makes the problem of online writer-independent handwriting recognition a challenging pattern recognition problem.
The foregoing “background” description is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the inventor, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure. The foregoing paragraphs have been provided by way of general introduction, and are not intended to limit the scope of the following claims. The described embodiments, together with further advantages, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.